Posts tagged shanzhai

Gone are the days of bizarre phones with some special practical use, but not all hope is lost. Earlier today, this author stumbled upon a shanzhai Android 4.0.1 phone with a built-in power plug! It's a bit awkward, though, as you have to take off the back cover to flip up the Type A plug -- we're ...

Here's something you still don't see every day: a KIRF that's unveiled before the device it's supposed to copy. Although the 2012 iPhone may not show for weeks, the Android-based Goophone I5 is already doing a remarkable job of aping Apple's rumored style, including that two-tone look that we've a...

We're used to seeing tablet market share illustrated on the world stage. China, however, has usually been untouched. Analysys International has taken a crack at decoding the market and has bucked a few expectations in the process: according to its estimates, the iPad's lead is even larger in China...

It's safe to say that most of our readers are accustomed to phone shops that are well lit, fairly spacious, and not peppered with KIRF products. But if you're feeling adventurous and want to take a dip in the deep end of the pool, then Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei district should satisfy your strange c...

Look away now, Kaz, because it looks like this KIRF NGP is on track to beat the real deal to market. Known as the iReadyGo RG on Chinese forum CNGBA, this shameless rip-off is set to be a near-carbon copy of Sony's upcoming console with the same 5-inch touchscreen, though it isn't clear whether thi...

Imagine a world where Nokia's N-Gage is the mobile platform of choice -- there's no iOS, no Android, and Nintendo's 3D ventures ended mercifully with the Virtual Boy. It's a world where the Nckia NG belongs. In our universe, a knockoff of the stillborn Nokia 7700 doesn't make a heck of a lot of sen...

While the folks "familiar with the matter" continue to debate over whether or not we'll actually see a real life iPhone nano at some point in our lifetime, the crafty KIRFers in China have taken matters into their own -- apparently undersized -- hands. Yes people, what you see above is a Shanzhai-c...

The D-Pad and E-Pad are two pint-sized cellphones that are reminiscent of the iPad, except they are telephones, they are much smaller, and they are totally different. Featuring a 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen, 2.5mm headphone jack, 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera and 2 megapixel rear camera with...

There are run-of-the-mill KIRFs, above-average KIRFs, and this. While we've definitely been privy to a few comical iPhone / iPod knockoffs over the years, there's a certain layer of hilariousness to this one that just can't be beat. The iPod nano watch isn't even a genuine Apple product; in fact, i...

You know, we've had all sorts of KIRFtastic encounters while visiting China, but take this four-letter word to a whole new level and you get this: a Chinese clone of Steve Jobs. What's actually happening here is Hong Kong MTR launching the latest release of its iOS subway app (which does augmented ...

BleckBarry! This is the handset that puts the "phone" in smartphone but, sadly, leaves out the "smart." Featuring a 2-inch display, Bluetooth, a whopping 506KB internal memory, FM and TV (with antenna!), and all the dual SIM action your heart can take, this $62 wonder does one thing well: it makes ...

Yo Nokia, you can keep your E5 and its HD Voice fanciness, we want ourselves an N-KIA E68. Why, we hear the enraged Nokia acolyte ask, why would we defile Nokia's good name in such a manner? Mostly because this phone has one of the most fun and ingenious slider mechanisms we've seen yet. So what if...

Being able to combine the best of both worlds is something of a shanzhai strong suit. Unfortunately, we don't see conjuring up a Droid with Windows Mobile 6.5 as the best of both worlds. As for the phone itself, it holds up pretty well, with a 533MHz Huawei Hass K3 processor, 256MB memory, 3 megapi...

We don't see a ton of Sharp cellphones 'round these parts, and fewer KIRF Sharps still. But we did get a kick out of the Decca N88 that popped up on M8 Cool recently. Featuring a 3-inch, 260k color display, dual SIMs, and support for all the usual media formats, this is pretty standard shanzhai far...

Is this a new record? Not twelve hours after the Nokia X5 slider got official in Singapore, our friend Albert spotted this curious square-shaped, Nokia-branded KIRF in a flea market in Manaus, Brazil. Of course, this raises the horrible possibility that this odd-ball form factor just might be catch...

We're sort of loving the fact that Apple's next-gen iPhone is already being KIRFed up, and although we've already seen a couple clumsy attempts at beating Apple to market with a clone of its own product, this lovely GPS-PHONE raises the bar by adding in a telescopic antenna. What's it for? We have ...

When we reviewed the Samsung Omnia II, we forgot to mention one major drawback: the lack of Giorgio Armani branding. Luckily the KIRFmeisters of Shenzhen have picked up where the original manufacturer dropped the ball. And they threw in a QWERTY keyboard to boot! No word on price or availability of...

It's been nearly a month since a China Grabber employee drunkenly left his experimental prototype next gen GiPhone at a Sushi Bar in Shenzhen, where it was found and sold to Shanzai.com for several thousand Yuan -- and the gadget world hasn't been the same since. The GiPhone F98 features, as all of...

With all the hype surrounding the next-gen iPhone, we can understand if your "iPhome 3G" feels a little, well, old hat. That's why we were as excited as you must be to see this iPhone 4 KIRF. Featuring a relatively svelte form factor, stereo speakers, USB port, a removable battery, and dual SIM car...

Our colleagues at Engadget Chinese are on the ground at China Sourcing Fair 2010 in Hong Kong, and as you can imagine, they're finding a great many devices that exhibit "a really heavy cottage flavor" (or, as we say in the states, "really, really KIRFy"). The BestPower X200, which we first saw in a...